The court decided: Har Adar students will study in Mevaseret Zion - Walla! local

What would you do if one fine morning the head of the council decided to ban 150 students from the nearby community from attending school, 4 months before the start of the school year?

For the past 30 years, Har Adar middle and high school students (about 4,000 residents) have been studying at Harel High School and HaYovel High School within the boundaries of the Mevaseret Zion Local Council. However, in recent weeks, the council has begun sending notices to parents of students in the community who are entering seventh and tenth grades that they do not intend to admit them to studies starting in the coming school year.

All this is contrary to previous agreements signed between the councils that arranged the payment that the community would transfer to the local council for the studies of students from the community, and after the Ministry of Education informed the Mevaseret Council that it must continue to absorb Har Adar students. The alternative presented to the court is that the students will have to travel every day to the city of Modi'in or Jerusalem – a distance of more than an hour's drive during rush hour.

In a petition filed by the Har Adar Local Council through Adv. Eyal Eichel of Arnon Tadmor-Levy, it was argued that the Mevaseret Zion Council's decision should be reversed, first and foremost because of the proximity of the announcement to the beginning of the next school year and considering that the deadlines for enrolling in other schools have already passed. On the other hand, the Mevaseret Zion Council claimed that due to the future occupancy of two new neighborhoods in its territory, it expects that there will not be enough space in the schools starting in the coming school year. The Ministry of Education, which also took part in the process, criticized the conduct of the Mevaseret Zion Council, and believed that the local council should continue to absorb Har Adar students at least in the coming year.

Yoram Shimon, Mevaseret Zion (Photo: Flash 90, Hadas Frosh)

Those who still wanted to express their opinion in the proceedings were the students themselves, some of whom even testified in court. They emphasized that they had already registered for the schools, that in the past they had even been told that there would be no problem with this, and that they felt detached, confused and helpless as a result of the Mevaseret Zion Council's announcements.

Judge Singer accepted the request and reversed the decision of the Mevaseret Zion Council. The judge noted that the absorption of middle and high school students in Mevaseret Zion for the past 30 years is done according to the Ministry of Education's procedure for mapping small communities without such schools.

The judge noted in her decision that "the Mevaseret Zion local council failed to prove that there is an immediate distress that prevents registration for the coming year. The claim is inconsistent with the data provided at the hearing and is inconsistent with statements made on behalf of council officials two years ago.", and that the Mevaseret Zion local council acted "forcefully" when it sent letters that are inconsistent with the Ministry of Education's position directly to the parents of Har Adar students."

Responses

Har Adar Council head Col. (res.) Haim Mendel Shaked said in response: "I welcome the fact that the best interest of the children, which is always before my eyes and is always my top priority, is what also guided the court in making a decision aimed at the needs of the students and intended to restore the ground of certainty back under their feet."

The Mevaseret Zion Local Council said in response: "The Mevaseret Zion Local Council is committed first and foremost to its students, both old and new residents of the locality, and this position will not change regardless of the position of the Ministry of Education or any other entity.

Our duty of loyalty is only to the residents of Mevaseret Zion and not to nearby local authorities that rely on Mevaseret Zion's education system out of economic and other considerations and not out of genuine concern for their residents, and certainly not for the residents of Mevaseret Zion. The Council will continue to use all the legal tools at its disposal to end the arrangement according to which Har Adar students are in Mevaseret Zion - as soon as possible.

The Ministry of Education has recognized for many years the need to establish a secondary school for Har Adar residents, which currently numbers about 600 secondary school students, and it is unclear why the Har Adar Council refrains from establishing this school, except for economic and convenient considerations of the Har Adar Council, which opposes such a school that would serve Har Adar students for academic achievement and excellence, and especially in light of the fact that in January of this year, the Ministry of Education decided to expand the elementary school up to and including ninth grade.

It is the duty of the Har Adar Council, as well as of the Ministry of Education, to find a preferential solution for all those students in Har Adar, or alternatively to study in the Jerusalem District.

In the background of the judge's decision, the Council, as its moral and public duty, will appeal the District Court's decision to the Supreme Court. Needless to say, the Council will respect any decision of the court.

Unfortunately, the position of the Education Broadcaster and the decision made as a result do not relate at all to the complex difficulties and consequences that make its implementation impossible and severely harm the children of Mevaseret Zion. Thus, for example, there is no response, solution or reference to the physical shortage in the classrooms, as well as to the severe shortage of pedagogical staff in the 2024-2024 school year, both at HaYovel Middle School and Harel High School, and the solution of crowding classrooms and turning students into sardines harms both Mevaseret Zion and Har Adar students, and therefore this solution is not a suitable alternative.

It should be emphasized that in the 2024-2024 school year there are no physical classrooms available and there are no pedagogical teams to implement the decision in question, and therefore the local authority, as well as schools, has no possibility of implementing it in practice.
He does not intend to accept the fact that due to the dysfunction of the Jerusalem District in the Ministry of Education as well as of the Har Adar Council, our children, who are in critical years of their secondary education, will study in crowded classrooms, in conditions that do not allow proper learning. The price of the administrative failure of the Har Adar Council and the Ministry of Education cannot be paid by Mevaseret Zion students in secondary schools.

The Council does not have the privilege not to do everything it can in this matter, in order to ensure a quality and optimal education system for Mevaseret Zion students only.

In addition, the Council will insist that all payments that have not been made by the Har Adar Council to the schools be made as soon as possible. If not, the council will take additional measures, including not absorbing all Har Adar students at the beginning of the upcoming school year.

• local
• Education, Welfare and Health

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• Mevaseret Zion
• education